1. Last day of school

It was an ordinary and quiet Friday morning in Moosonee, Canada. A boy named Allan Hetja was sleeping peacefully in his bed, unaware of the fact that this was the week his life would change forever. A sharp sound suddenly replaced the silence, Allan woke up, yawned and his hand clumsily searched for the alarm. He rubbed his eyes and got out of bed. “Ah just one more day, and then its summer vacation… wonderful!” he thought to himself. He ran down the staircase and quickly found a seat by a little round dining table in the kitchen. His father and sister were already up. “Good morning Al” his father said while yawning, he almost lost his coffee mug on the floor. “Morning” Allan said as he buttered his toast. He ate happily while he looked at his little sister. She was struggling with her bowl of cereal. She had short brown hair and big brown eyes, she had a big charming smile and the cutest little birthmark under her left eye. His father looked at her as well, “what do you want for your birthday sweetheart?” he said. She just took a big scoop of cereal and started enumerating every toy in the local toy store. His father giggled and kissed her forehead, “come on Hanna, we have to get ready for kindergarten.” She smiled fondly and jumped on one leg all the way into the hallway, until Allan couldn’t see her anymore. “5 years old..” he muttered. He remembered the day she was born as if it was last week, he was only ten years old when he was told that he got a new sister, but lost his mother at the same time. Normally his father wasn’t looking forward to Hanna’s birthday, but 5 years is a long time, and even though Allan missed his mother he had stopped blaming Hanna for her death. He pulled his thoughts together and put his plate in the sink. “I better get ready for school” he thought.

“Have a good last day of school!” His father said while he waved his hand keenly, Allan waved back at him and opened the rusty old gate that led out of their little garden, the weed was growing uncontrollably, but in-between, little flower corollas were showing. Allan liked walking to school, the birds were singing and he heard a dog barking playfully in the distance. He passed all of the houses in the small suburban area. They were all pretty much the same, he liked hiking in the wild much more, but he hadn’t done that for years. When he finally arrived at the school, he took his usual seat next to his best friend Kate. Kate was in his grade, she had long curly red hair and she had the most beautiful green eyes you could ever imagine. “Hey Al!” she said, “Are you up for a late night beach party tonight?” she smiled at him. “Sure!” Allan said, he loved parties, especially the ones Kate was attending. “Before he had the chance to ask her about the details of the party his teacher arrived, Allan was happy that he wouldn’t be seeing him for a couple of months. He smiled, like the other kids in his class, they were all excited about the vacation. Allan spent the entire lecture daydreaming about the much-needed vacation, he hadn’t heard a single word of what the teacher was saying during the entire class. Suddenly he saw a shape move outside the window, it was a cat. It was black as the night and it had big yellow eyes. Normally Allan wouldn’t care, but there was something odd about this cat, it was staring at him. He could have sworn it didn’t even blink once! He quickly forgot about the strange cat when the bell rang for the last time that day. Every pupil at the school ran jubilantly out of the classrooms. Kate grabbed his arm and pulled him through the crowd to the main entrance, she pulled him aside and said: “see you tonight?” Allan nodded and she strutted away. He was thrilled; the vacation was finally here, he couldn’t wait to spend all day in the sun worrying about anything but school.